The present invention relates generally to a safety device for a saw and more specifically to a device for protecting a user of a hand held hand power saw from debris ejected from the saw during use.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that hand power saws are widely used to cut wood. It will be further appreciated by those skilled in the art that, when a hand power saw is in use, debris is forced back toward the user because of the rotation of the blade. This flying debris can be as small as wood shavings or as large as wood chips or wood blocks. This debris poses at least a nuisance and can pose a hazard to the user. The rotation of the saw blade increases the nuisance by creating turbulence which blows debris toward the user. To this end, there have been several attempts to provide a device for protecting a user against flying debris while using a hand power saw.
One such attempt can be found on almost any hand power saw. Early hand power saws had an exposed blade. Modern hand power saws have an upper guard as is shown in FIGS. 1-3 of the drawings herein showing a standard hand held power tool. This offers a degree of protection from flying debris. Unfortunately, this upper guard is very narrow and cannot block much of the flying debris.
What is needed, then, is a device for protecting a user of a hand held power saw from flying debris. This device must be easily attachable to a standard hand power saw. This device must be transparent and at least translucent, to enable the user to see the work piece that is being cut. This device must be made of a flexible material. This device must redirect the turbulence created by the moving saw blade of a hand held power tool. This device is presently lacking in the prior art.